8/7/2011 6:20 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF

Jesse Eisenberg's new movie about a pizza delivery boy who's abducted, outfitted with a bomb, and forced to rob a bank ... is PISSING OFF friends of a man who was killed under VERY similar circumstances ... TMZ has learned.

The movie -- "30 Minutes or Less" -- is being promoted as a comedy flick. But back in 2003, nobody was laughing when 46-year-old pizza man Brian Wells DIED when a bomb strapped around his neck exploded after he tried to rob a bank.

Wells insisted he was abducted during a pizza delivery in Pennsylvania -- claiming the bombmaker locked an explosive device around his neck and ordered him to rob a bank.

Cops placed Wells in handcuffs ... but backed away from the guy when they realized the bomb was REAL. The bomb exploded while news cameras rolled ... and Wells was killed instantly.

Years later, federal prosecutors alleged Brian concocted the plan with several other people. One of the plotters insisted Brian was under the impression an actual bomb would NOT be used.

TMZ spoke with one of Brian's closest friends who tells us he's outraged that Hollywood would mock Wells' death ... calling the movie "trash."

The friend tells us, "It's stupid the movie is even coming
out ... producers can go jump in a lake for all I care!"

He adds, "Doesn't Brian have a right to die? They're
blowing something up that should never have even happened in the first
place and now they wanna make a joke out of it ... it's really tragic."

A rep for Columbia Pictures tells TMZ, "Neither the filmmakers nor the stars of '30 Minutes or Less' were aware of this crime prior to their involvement in the film."

The rep adds, "The writers were vaguely familiar with what had occurred and wrote an original screenplay that does not mirror the real-life tragedy. "